Sunday, 7 October 2012

Well here we are at the end and you’ll be
relieved to know that this final entry will be very short.

The bottom line is that, as part of the content
industry, your business exists to serve your customers.

If you choose to provide a service that is
worse than the competition (be that legitimate or otherwise) then you can
expect to lose customers.

If you choose to provide a service that
excludes certain sections of your potential customer base then you can expect
to lose customers.

If you choose to provide a product that is
more restricted that that offered by the competition (legitimate or otherwise)
you can expect to lose customers.

And finally, if you choose to treat your
customers like criminals, and make them feel like criminals when they do
support you, you can expect to lose customers.

But, as I’ve hopefully explained, you don’t
have to choose to do any of these things…

* With reference to Red Dwarf: “Kryten: A superlative
suggestion, sir, with just two minor flaws. One: we don't have any defensive
shields. And two: we don't have any defensive shields. Now I realise that,
technically speaking, that's only one flaw; but I thought it was such a big
one, it was worth mentioning twice.”